My involvement
in the art business has now spanned over 30 years. I began as a picture
framer, then worked alongside a restorer, became an art dealer, and
over 20 years ago, I began to draw and paint. In my career, I’ve
been fortunate to have seen remarkably good works of art and to have
met some of the best painters in the field.
I love
what the famous French art dealers called themselves: picture dealers.
I am a picture maker. When I’m making an artwork, it takes a bit
of nerve to start a big white canvas or a blank printing plate and make
a picture. There is anxiety in the air.
Fortunately,
I’ve learned that what others would call mistakes are part of
the creative process. So, I try to begin boldly, using more color than
might exist in nature, varying the types of strokes and marks. During
the process, I allow my vision and the inevitable missteps to become
a part of the emerging image. Some of these missteps will be eliminated
and the more delicious ones are incorporated into the process as unintended
surprises.
Painting
is not a linear, start to finish process for me. I typically have a
number of paintings and pastels in progress in the studio. I welcome
interruptions. They are also part of the process. If the phone rings,
I’m talking and looking at other paintings, looking for new ideas
out the window, or laying around the studio. Sometimes the very solution
I’m seeking is found that way. Otherwise, I might continue to
focus on the singular canvas in front of me and miss a chance to make
it better. All the paintings and little images in view feed each other,
offering solutions and more problems. Those paintings that make it out
the door have come to a good but sometimes torturous conclusion.
Making
monotypes is the culmination of all that I know focused into making
a picture in an hour and a half or less. The paper is soaking, the printer
is waiting and the plates are blank, wanting to do their magic in the
press. In a full day at the printers, I can only get five to seven prints.
Once the first marks are made, the day is a blur of creative energy.
There is the banter and flow with the printer, the smell of the papers
and inks, the music in the background, and the plates: two per print,
in an endless progression. The day goes by quickly and precious few
prints are made. It seems a shame to clean up and leave so soon!
Tomorrow
in the studio, perhaps new oils and pastels will emerge and come to
completion and next week, perhaps another date at the printers. The
fun of it all is that sometimes the pastels become new oils, oils become
slightly different prints, prints become entirely new oils, monotypes
come from everything. All of nature is altered, perfected, abstracted.
When you run out of variations to an idea, you go back to nature and
there all the ideas and colors for a lifetime are always waiting for
you.
To contact Ken Elliott or to view additional oils, pastels, monotypes
collages, or prints, go to: www.kenelliott.com
